Mancala
by LadySophieKitty
Summary: It's a game as old as life itself, used in war and in peace, for fun and for serious. But can two love-stricken partners-against-crime bring something to the table that has never been done before in the game?


Possible names:

Mancala

**Disclaimer**: Don't own it, sorry. I wish I did, but I don't.

**Takes Place: **Sometime after 3x11, or Player under Pressure

**Summary: **Mancala is a game as old as life itself, used in war and in peace, for fun and for serious. But can two love-stricken partners-against-crime bring something to the table that has never been done before in the game?

As she watched him drop a line of marbles onto his side of the board, she was fuming. She couldn't believe it. How was it possible that she, Temperance Brennan, was losing? It was simply not done, especially in a game of logic like this one. Yet there she was, with a handful of marbles on her side of the board, and at least twice the amount on his side. He didn't even think his moves out! He just impulsively reached for a random set of marbles and somehow made it work.

_It had all started two hours earlier. Brennan was just sitting down to start writing her novel when she could hear a 'knock knock' on the door. She ignored it at first, intent to get her ideas down while her (for lack of a better term) creative juices were flowing. Then the knocking grew louder and more intense. Sighing loudly she saved the few words she had managed to write on Word, and answered the door only to find herself standing in front of Booth._

_She should have known. Who else would show up at the apartment so late at night? Well, late at night was pretty much the only time she was at the apartment, but that was beside the point. _

"_What do you want, Booth?" _

"_Why hello to you too, Bones! It's so nice how eager you are to see me." _

_She held back a retort. After all, it wasn't his fault he had horrible timing. "Sorry, just trying to write some. I have a deadline coming up soon, and I'd really like to have it done in time if possible." Brennan noticed he was holding something in his hand…a wooden box. Since they had just finished a case and she didn't notice a file in his hands, it couldn't have anything to do with work. _

"_What's that?" she asked, nodding at the box._

"_Oh, I was thinking that we could play this game I bought a few days ago with Parker. Maybe you've heard of it…mancala?" _

_Now that he mentioned the name of the game, she realized that the box looked familiar. Brennan had played the game a few times with her brother before Russ complained that she kept beating him. _

She would have refused the game part (after all, Brennan _was _an adult and should have been too old for such games) had it not been mancala. After all, it was a problem solving game, and Brennan loved puzzles. It wasn't a pointless game like some of the ones she had seen, but rather an educational one. So Brennan agreed.

"Bones? Earth to Bones. Anyone there?" Booth's hand was waving in front of her face. Startled, Brennan realized that she had been spacing out.

"What?" She snapped. Losing wasn't bringing out the best of her.

"Your turn."

"Oh." Brennan looked back at the board again, carefully calculating each move and trying to decide which one was the best before finally making her move. It simply would not do, something had to be done, and fast. How would she be able to face Booth at work after this? How would he be able to trust her to do her job when she couldn't even win a game of logic? Then an idea hit her…bore him so much that he wouldn't even be able to concentrate. And what better way to bore him to death than to tell him the whole history of the game?

"You know, anthropologically speaking, this game has a lot of history." She started.

"Really?" Booth said in a not-really-interested tone. As long as she didn't diss his religion or bring up sex though, he would humor her.

"Yes. It is said to be one of the oldest board games around because it can be played with pretty much any kind of medium. They've found evidence of the game like fragments of a pottery board and several rocks in Ethiopia, which are thought to be from the sixth and seventh century, although it was also played in Egypt well before 1400 B.C. People in Africa often played with seashells, such as cowrie, as the marbles in rings in the sand or specially carved wooden boards and seeds."

"You copied that straight from a textbook, didn't you, Bones," Booth said, picking up another round of marbles to beat her ass.

"Are you doubting my ability to make a statement without consulting a book?" She scowled at him, her blue eyes flashing dangerously. Though she knew he was teasing, her intelligence was much too bruised to take any insults now. Not that she usually could, but that's beside the point.

"Of course not, Bones, wouldn't dream of it." Satisfied for now, Brennan gave him a glare before continuing her speech.

"In fact, mancala boards have even been found carved on the roofs of temples in Luxor, Thebes, and Memphis. Though it originated in Africa, with slavery being around it immigrated with them to America, as well as other places such as India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines."

"Imagine that."

"However, each tribe in Africa has different variations of how to play it, and even different names and spellings! Names include things such as Sadeqa, Bao, Choro, Mangola, and Wari. The latter, which comes from the West Africa and the Caribbean,

is also known as Aware, Walle, Awaoley, and several more, and is also one of the two most well known versions. The other is Ayo from Nigeria."

"Look Bones, are you going to go or not? Because if you don't want to play, I'll be more then happy to stop. I am winning, after all."

Damn. Obviously this wasn't working like Brennan had expected it to. But how did that quote go? If at first you don't succeed… well, she couldn't remember the rest, though the message was certainly clear: time to come up with a new plan.

"Sweetie, you're a female, he's a male. Use it against him!" Angela's voice popped into her head. Brennan shook it out of her head. No way would she go that far, particularly not with Booth.

"Bones…" He was starting to sound annoyed. Curse him and his winning streak. Curse Angela for putting such an absurd idea in her head. Curse herself for not being able to lose. Hell, while she was at it, curse whoever came up with the stupid game in the first place.

While she calculated each move in her head, Brennan took a long piece of hair out of its ponytail and began to twirl it around in her fingers. Subtle, but a start nonetheless. There, if she calculated correctly, that would give her 3 marbles to add to her current ten (if she was one to be superstitious, the fact that she was forced to take such desperate measures while having an unlucky number would have definitely come up in her head) versus his current twenty-two marbles. Yes, definitely the move since the others gave her one or two or none.

She bent over as far as she could as to give Booth a clear view of her cleavage, though showing not too much of course. She could feel his gaze upon her and the expression on his face was one that, if she hadn't been the one to orchestrate the entire thing, she would have gotten very mad at him for. Once all the marbles had been added to her pile, Brennan gave him a small smile and said, "Your turn." Booth seemed almost surprised, as if he had forgotten what he was doing for a moment. _One point for Temperance, zero for Seeley! _

"Is it just me, or is it getting really hot in here?" Brennan asked as Booth reached for a handful of marbles. She waved her hand in front of her face and leaned to her side, giving Booth the perfect opportunity to see the outline of her body. It truly was a hot evening, so all she had on was a casual tank-top and blue jeans. Nothing immodest of course, but enough for her purposes.

Booth was blushing, "You know, I haven't really noticed."

"I hate summer, I always have. Even when I was a kid."

"Why? Because there was no school?" Booth teased. Brennan made her move, then smacked him playfully on the arm.

"Hey, it's not my fault I took my education seriously. Way better than spending my time smoking cigarettes and making out with guys under the bleachers like _some _people I know."

"I made out with guys under the bleachers? That's news to me." He smiled, though more for an excuse to clench his teeth than because of their conversation. _She has no idea what she's doing to me, _he thought. _This was why such a thing as self-control exists. So use it._

"Seeley," she said, saying his first name for the first time in a long time.

"Yeah?" he answered, forgetting to tell her off for using his first name.

She leaned forward, heart pounding at what she was about to do, until her mouth was right next to his ears and then she whispered, "Your turn."

That was when Booth finally lost all control. He grabbed her arms and his lips crashed on hers. She seemed to be trying to pull back for a moment before finally giving in and kissing back. The kiss lasted several seconds before they broke away, gasping heavily. Before having time to think of the consequences, Brennan reached in for another kiss. This time it was all gentleness and lightness, no tongues flying or the rough grabbing of arms.

This time when they stopped, Brennan spoke.

"Tell me, exactly how were you winning?"

"Oh, I was wondering when you were going to ask that. Trick I picked up from Parker. I hid a marble or two in my palm, so that way when I landed in an empty spot, I could go on to the next one. I was wondering how long it would take you to notice. You know, for someone so smart you are very gullible." Booth answered, giving her his trademark cheeky grin.

"You mean I did all that for nothing?" Brennan gasped. Before she could tell him off though, Booth leaned in for another kiss.

Well, maybe not nothing.

A/N-YAY! It's done! This is my 16th fic that I've written, though the first Bones story ever. I was playing mancala the other day when this plot entered my head, and it would absolutely not leave me alone until I wrote it. Hopefully it wasn't too bad, and they didn't sound too much like teenagers. Oh, and sorry if the random part where it was Booth's POV near the end was confusing. So please review and tell me what you think! I should be writing another Bones story soon, so keep an eye out for that.

And I would like to give a big thanks to my beta Caroline for helping me on this. Even though you've never seen an episode of Bones (which will change soon) you helped a lot!


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